Chief Screeching Owl

Last Friday was the Kindergarten "Pow Wow" or Thanksgiving program. Pictured above is Cody as "Chief Screeching Owl." Like his name...there is a whole other story behind it. He had to choose an Indian name that was representative of him, the end result was one we could all agree on, including Cody, personally I liked "Stands with a fist". Anyway I really enjoyed the program, all of the kids did a great job, it was the perfect way to start the Thanksgiving holidays.

Halloween

So I know I am running a little late with this post. We had another great Halloween this year, complete with the Mad Hatter, Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker, and a monkey. We went to trunk or treat at the kids school on the Sunday before with games and rides and then went trick or treating around the neighborhood the night of. to say we have got a lot of candy would be a definite understatement.

Pumpkins

This past weekend we were invited out to my in-laws to carve pumpkins and eat some good food (sauerkraut & brats). We had a great time visiting with family. Below are some pictures from the day along with our finished product...

Cody's pumpkin

Kendall's pumpkin

Cathy's pumpkin

Colin's pumpkin

Joshua, Cat, Colin, Jamison, Cody & Kendall

Uncle Ryan, Aunt Jamie & Joshua

Kendall hard at work

All four completed pumpkins

Cathy carving

Michael

Colin & Aunt Jamie

Sleepy

It's 11:45 I have just gotten good and asleep when I am awakened by the sound of Kendall crying. I hobble up the stairs half asleep into her room and see her sitting there in the middle of her crib looking for her pacifier. I noticed that it had dropped onto the floor so I picked it up gave it back to her, gave her a kiss tucked her in and turned around to walk out the door. She immediately rose up and began crying. "Kendall", I said, "It is night -night time, mommy is going to sleep and Kendall is going to sleep" Naturally that did not matter to a 17 mo old that wanted her mommy to hold her.

So I lifted her out of bed, and stood there a few minutes rocking and snuggling with her. I walked back to her crib to lay her down. She was almost asleep, so I stood there a few minutes caressing her head as she kept peaking so sleepy eyed at me to make sure I was still there. As I was standing there with her I thought to myself how very lucky I am, how blessed I am to be her mother, to be the mother of 4 beautiful, healthy children, and how although at many times being a mom can be so stressful, it also brings unparalleled joy.

Who wore it best

Michael

Kendall

Cody

Colin

Their Back

When work took my brother-n-law and his family away to New York over two years ago, I cannot express how sad we were to see them go. It really made us realize how much we cherish them, my kids especially, it was just not the same when we would go to Nana and Papa's and not have them there.

But I am so happy to say that now work has brought them back! My crew could hardly wait for this past Saturday to get here so that we could help move them into their new home. They are now only an hours drive away and the kids have already had a sleepover. We are all looking forward to spending lots of time together and just enjoying having them close again!

And on an additional happy note, I got the word yesterday that my cousin and her family are moving back as well! Similar story in that work moved them away, all the way to NY as well, and now it is moving them back to the sunshine state. They will not be quite as close as Ry and Jamie, but only 1 hour further and that is awesome. I am so thankful to have them close again, and am looking forward to having everyone home for the holidays... :)

Dude

Okay so night before last the boys were upstairs playing their Wii, Michael and Kendall went upstairs with them and a few minutes later I followed suit. I was sitting on the floor playing with Michael and Kendall when Michael reached over and began to kiss me. Both of our boys started with the "Ooh gross!" when Cody looks at Colin and says "Dude you are gonna have to do that one day", to which Colin replied "I know...so are you", and Cody answered with "Yea, but you are first."

I swear it was one of the funniest things I have heard in a long time. I think Michael and I both laughed for a good fifteen minutes :)

Daughters

I read this on another's blog, and just loved it so thought I would share...

"We need to teach our daughters to distinguish between a man who flatters her and a man who compliments her...a man who spends money on her and a man who invests in her...a man who views her as property and a man who views her properly...a man who lusts after her and a man who loves her...a man who believes he is God's gift to women and a man who remembers a woman was God's gift to man."

Lost...not found

So what a way to start my week off... I was in my bathroom getting ready this morning putting on my finishing touches (my earrings). Now I am a creature of habit and I definately have my favorite "go to" jewelry (pictured above). Which consist of a beautiful aquamarine necklace and matching earrings that Michael bought for me. While they are a matching set I did not get them at the same time.

He gave me the neckalce many years ago for Christmas, I was really surprised when I got it, he bought me a new leather jacket that year and there was a box in the pocket with my necklace in it. A year or two later he gave me the matching earrings for my birthday. I remember it so well, I was pregnant with Colin at the time and still in that early not feel so good part of the pregnancy and he took me out to dinner and gave them to me there.

They are my favorite!!! Both pieces the necklace and the earrings! Anyway as I was putting my earrings on I noticed that my necklace was not on my neck? I immediately looked through my other jewelry puzzled as I had not remembered taking it off (I rarely do, unless it is to switch necklaces) and it was not there. I now have no idea where it is or when I lost it. I know I wore it to work on Friday and I think I remember having it on Saturday morning, but after that I cannot recall, I am going to try and retrace some of my steps, but the truth is it could be anywhere... I feel so sad, it is weird to put that much attachment on something I know, but it was very special to me.

Psychology

So last night Cody and Colin got in a fight while playing the Wii (nothing unusual there..) I went upstairs to break it up when I caught Cody trying to hit his brother with the remote, so long story short Cody lost his privilege to play the video game and had to come downstairs with me and Kendall. He proceeded to throw a little tantrum and really "show out". I was calmly sitting on the couch holding Kendall and watching him express his dislike at his punishment, when I bent over gave Kendall a kiss and said aloud "I remember when Cody was your size and he would let me hold him and kiss him, and not walk around being mean to everybody".

All of a sudden the tantrum stopped and he began to pick up the pillows and toys he had thrown, after that he cleaned up all the toys his sister had been playing with, he then came sat next to me on the couch and gave me a kiss, and I sat there in amazement and thought to myself "really is that all it takes, a little guilt trip?"

My Little Videographer

So lately Colin has been taking video's using my phone, below is a sample of his work, but turn up your volume because his narration is the best :)

Birthday Bash

I can hardly believe that is has been five years since Cody was born, but is has... he turned five years old on July 14th. To celebrate we had a pool party with family and friends and even had my cousin and her family (who live out of state now) there as she was home visting. Cody had lots of fun and got lots of cool presents. As you will see below in the pictures, any kind of super-hero toy is always a big hit!

Kendall got in on the fun of presents

Granny Betty and my nephews

opening presents

Green Lantern was a big hit

Cody and his friend Evan

Green Lantern is blowing out Cody's candles

look it's Finn McMissile

Silver Fox

Okay, so the other day after I got home from work the kids and I decided we would play a game. Each one of the kids had their respective turns as Mama's teamate. When it was my oldest turn to be on my team she came and sat down beside me.

After a moment or two I hear "Mama, you have silver in your hair" to which I looked at her and said..."Yes baby, I know I have grey hair thank you for pointing it out." She then said "No Mama, it is not grey it is silver and it is so pretty, it is shiny." To which I replied "Thank you sweetie, but I really dont want pretty grey hair at 32 years old." When once again she said to me "But it is not grey, it is silver and it is pretty.", "I think it looks cool."

And what could I say to that....

Summer Reading

I cannot believe we are already at the end of June. It feels like the kids just got out for summer break. Over the summer Cathy has "summer reading" that is required as part of her first nine weeks English grade for next year. She has a list of books to choose from and must read two of them then take the associated AR test. Now this is the second time we have had to worry about AR testing over the summer. At her school summer reading was not required until middle school, so the first year you had to worry about it was the summer leaving fifth grade going to sixth.

Here comes the good news... they changed that and this year every student entering third grade and above has required summer reading. What does this mean for me? That Colin now has the same requirements for summer reading as his older sister (different list of course). So at lunch today I head out to the library to get the first book Cat wants to read, which of course they do not have. Here is hoping her school library will have it. However her school library is only open for testing and book rental two days a week, and only once a week after 2pm. So why am I writing about this you ask, well it is to vent and say, couldn't they make it a little easier for us working parents?

Photos

You might have noticed that I have new pictures up. We recently had new family photos made and I have to say a big Thank You to Stacy Davis who was our photographer and helped capture some beautiful pictures if I do say so myself ;) For any of you that live in our area and are interested, her website is below

www.stacydavisphotography.com

Busy Bee

With all things going on and summer time here I have gotten really behind in my blogging, but I would like to catch up on a couple of really exciting things. First I am the proud Aunt to two beautiful little boys. Vance and Dean arrived on April 26th, 2011 and I am happy to say they are both doing wonderful and growing like weeds.

Second we celebrated Kendall's first birthday. I can hardly believe it has already been a year, time really does pass too quickly, below area few pictures from her special day. I will add that she really enjoyed her cake...

Daddy...

Today is a day when we celebrate father's. I would like to take a moment and write about mine. There are so many fun memories that I could tell you about from days when I was really small, just sitting on daddy's lap or when we would go get a "grab bag" after school to as I got older learning to drive a car and the many memories of us and the horses going on trail rides or getting ready for the horse shows, but instead I think I would like to talk about what I learned from my daddy.

The lessons he taught me that I hold close to my heart. Lessons I hope to pass down to my children. He taught me that if I was going to do something to always strive to do my best, the importance of keeping my word, honesty and being true to myself. Most of all the strong sense of family he instilled in me, knowing that my family would always be there for me no matter what.

So it is on this day that I would like to tell him thank you, thank you for all the fun times we have had, for all the fun times we have ahead of us and for helping make me the woman I am today, one I hope makes you proud.

Iron Will

I will start this post by saying I am in know way an expert at being a mother. While it is true that I have four children and have learned a lot it is an adventure were I continue to learn and grow daily.


With Kendall being a year old now I decided it was time to transition from cup to bottle. My plan was to switch her cold turkey, the same way I have done it with all three of my older children. From my previous experiences I knew that although she may pitch a fit, she would get over it and when she got thirsty she would drink from the cup. Below is her opinion of said transition....

Three days in she still is throwing a fit at every feeding, and while she does drink from her cup it is after much protest. There have been many times over this past weekend were I wanted to give in and just give her the bottle back. But I know better than that, and this to shall pass.

Twice the Blessing

Please excuse that I am a little behind in this post. As most of you reading this are aware, my baby sister is pregnant with twins. I had the honor of hosting her baby shower the last weekend in March. We had a really great time, played a couple of fun games and most important she got lots of nice presents. A few pictures from our day are below.

Routine Stuff...

Below is the story of how I started my day yesterday and is an average morning for me. For those of you that are mothers perhaps you can relate... It's 5:45 I wake up to the alarm, after turning it off I hobble my way (still half asleep) to the kitchen to put a pot on to boil the water for Kendall's formula. Then while I am waiting on the water I gather up all the kids bookbags, and remove papers from the previous day, while signing behavior reports (for the smaller ones), I then repack the bookbags and get Cathy's soccer bag packed as she has a game after school. By this time the water is boiling so I set it over to cool. I then make Kendall's bottles for daycare, being sure to write her name and the date on each one.

Next I hear Kendall awaken so up the stairs I go to get her. She is standing in her crib and greets me with a smile and kiss as I pick her up, for a brief moment all is right in the world. We go back downstairs together were I get her dressed for the day and fix her morning bottle. I then place her in her seat and I hop in the shower. I finish my shower and get Kendall then we make our way back upstairs to wake up the other kids. I start by waking up Cathy, I lay her uniform out for her on the foot of her bed and then proceed to the boys room where my fun always begins ;) I get their uniforms for them and help Cody get dressed, not because he needs my help, but because it is MUCH faster than waiting on him to decide he is ready to get up. The boys and I then go to the bathroom passing Cathy's room where I have to remind her again that it is time to get up and get ready for school. I brush both the boys hair and help them with their teeth then back downstairs we go, time to fix breakfast.

I set Kendall on the floor where her brothers begin to fight over who is going to play with her, then go to the pantry and ask the boys what they would like. "Poptarts" I hear in reply, so I place them in the toaster and get their drinks. By this time Cathy has made her way down stairs, but only after me yelling to her upstairs once again that it is time to get ready. I prepare Cat's breakfast as well and have them all sitting at the table. I then make Kendall's formula and fix her cereal. I had just started feeding her the cereal when Cat finishes eating her breakfast. Yes, I think to myself, Cat can finish feeding her and I may actually get makeup on this morning. So I head to my bathroom to get ready and leave the boys at the table eating and Cat feeding Kendall.

As I return to the kitchen (after hearing lots of fighting) to tell everyone it is time to get their shoes on I see Cody sitting in the corner and part of his poptart on the floor. When I asked him why he threw his poptart on the floor, he told me that "Colin farted on it". As I am buckling Kendall in her carseat and making sure they all have shoes and bookbags I ask Cody how his brother was able to fart on his poptart, he never did tell me and Colin was laughing saying that Cody was not telling the truth. So the poptart that got farted on made its way to the trash and we made it out the door. Long story short I never know what to expet when I get up in the morning, but I know there will never be a dull moment.

On the Edge

It was the middle of the night and I was sound asleep when suddenly I heard someone calling me. It sounded as if it was coming from far away, I asked myself "am I dreaming" then realize that I was not, it was my four year old beckoning me from his room upstairs.

I rushed up there to check and see if he was okay, and found him sitting on the floor beside his bed. That is when I had to laugh. He had fallen out of his bed and wanted me to help him back and tuck him in.

The reason this was so funny to me is;
1) I tell Cody everynight that he is sleeping too close to the edge and is going to fall off
2) This is not the first time he has done this

Maybe tonight when I suggest once again that he move to the middle of the bed he will listen ;)

Slippery Subject

Okay, so today was Cathy's induction into the Middle School Chapter of the National Honor Society. Last night we decided together what dress she was going to wear, no problems there... She woke up this morning and went to get dressed when I told her to put on a slip. To say that she objected to my request would be putting it mildly. She had a bit of a fit "I do not need a slip", "I am going to look stupid", all of this with tears wailing up in her eyes over a slip, a slip that nobody was going to see.

After some bickering back and forth between the two of us, and me trying to explain to her (which let me add here a slip is not a new concept to her or in our house) that anytime a lady of any age wears a dress a slip is appropriate, she proceeded to get dressed slip and all then pouted the rest of the morning, especially upon me telling her that she needed to wear her sweater as it was cool out this morning. But all that being said, it was a really nice ceremony and her daddy and I are SO VERY PROUD of her!

Busy, Busy...

My life has been a whirlwind as of late. I have not posted to much in a while but have had a lot going on both at home and work. So below is a brief update...

Cathy- So much to say, her basketball team went undefeated on the season and through the playoffs(two seasons in a row now) and won their division championship. She is doing wonderfully at school and is being inducted into the Middle School Honor Society this Thursday. She has a big decision coming up soon as both soccer and softball are in the spring, and in middle school she is only allowed to play one or the other so she will have to choose as tryouts begin in a week or two.... As always she is a wonderful help to me where Kendall is concerned, she makes me proud everyday to be her mother.

Colin- He just lost another tooth, he now has lost both front top teeth, so he has a really cute smile at the moment ;) He is doing awesome riding his new bike that he got from Santa. That is the one thing I admire most about my son. He does not give up, he will keep trying until he gets it and not only until he gets it, but until he perfects it. He is doing so good at school as well and is still and I think always will be mama's boy.

Cody- Hmm, what new and exciting can I tell you about Cody? He is growing up so fast sometimes we forget that he is only 4 years old. He is doing really well with his writing and he loves to go to school and play with his best friend Evan. Cody is definitely the most stubborn Willoughby, but that can be a good thing, I don't have to worry about anyone pushing him around or making him do something he doesn't want to. He is very protective of his baby sister and she lights up whenever he plays with her.

Kendall- OMG, can you believe she is almost ten months old? I cant. She is very mobile now and she gets into everything. Last week she began pulling herself up and this morning I watched in awe as she held onto the side of Cody's bed and walked down the side to the toy she wanted. It wont be too long before she lets go and then the chasing will really begin. We have had a lot of trouble with her ears since we began daycare, I am praying that it will improve soon. All three of the older children ended up with ear tubes, but I would like to avoid that if we can.

Michael- Is doing well. He is looking forward to the spring and warmer weather. The yard at our new house is not near in the shape of our old lawn, so he is on a mission to get it there. The part of that he is not looking forward to is there is no sprinkler system here so we have to water with the hose which means going out and moving it every 15 minutes or so. Colin is going to play baseball for the first time this spring, so he is excited about working with him on that. Anything he can do active with the kids he enjoys.

Me- I am well. I believe the sickness the plagued or house over November, December and even into January has now passed. I had a wonderful birthday, my parents threw me a little party over the past weekend, complete with cake and presents which was really nice, and my mother in-law made me my favorite dinner and white chocolate cheesecake. I am really busy and backed up at work, but being busy is better than the opposite so I can take that. And at home, well you can imagine how busy I am once I get home from work, somebody always needs me for something and there is always something to do, but I love it, I mean I cant imagine what it will be like when they are all grown up and out of the house....

Choco-love...

It is that time of year again, and yes , "gasp" the numbers are in the correct order. Yesterday was my birthday and pictured above is my cake that Michael and the kids made for me. It is a chocolate cake, two layers, with strawbeery icing in the middle and chocolate on the outside :) I loved it, it is definately my favorite cake that I have ever gotten!